The present disclosure relates to video coding techniques. In particular, the present disclosure relates to video coding, such as, but not limited to, the case of screen content coding, i.e. coding of screen content video. Screen content may include a mixture of content such as video, text, and graphics and, in some cases, non-camera captured content. In one aspect, the present disclosure relates to intra block copying (IBC). In another aspect, the present disclosure relates to deblocking filtering (DBF).
Modern video codecs such as MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 or HEVC (currently published as ISO/IEC 23008-2 MPEG-H Part 2 and ITU-T H.265) may include techniques such as IBC and deblock filtering to handle video coding, including screen content coding. IBC is a block matching technique in which, for a coding unit (CU) within a largest coding unit (LCU), the CU is predicted as a displacement from an already-reconstructed block of samples from a previously coded neighboring region in the current picture. For instance, a vector pointing to an already encoded/decoded area in the image may be specified and the referenced data may be used as a prediction signal for the current CU. DBF reduces blocking artifacts that arise due to block-based coding. DBF is typically an in-loop process applied to reconstructed samples before writing them into a decoded picture buffer in a decoder loop.
Traditional video coding techniques are inefficient in that they are complex and consume a relatively large amount of memory and/or bandwidth. Therefore, the inventor(s) perceived a need in the art for improved and simplified encoding and decoding processes with respect to both complexity and quality. The encoding and decoding processes described here reduce memory and bandwidth consumption, resulting in an improved experience at the decoder compared to conventional encoders, and may reduce blockiness, improve resolution and subjective quality, as well as reduce other artifacts and improve compression.